Tim Winton’s masterpiece, now in paperback

There was great excitement this week when the new paperback edition of Tim Winton’sThe Shepherd’s Hutarrived in store.

It is almost a year to the day since the hardcover (and more expensive) edition of this stunning novel was published. Over the following months, we watched the book’s popularity soar as more readers discovered the tender story of traumatised WA teenager Jaxie Clackton and his unexpected friendship with the mysterious former priest Fintan MacGillis.

And then in October, when it came time to declare My Bookshop’s Book of the Year for 2018,The Shepherd’s Hutwas a clear winner.

One of My Bookshop’s most-admired reviewers, Michael McGirr, describesThe Shepherd's Hutas “ a landmark book in Winton's career: austere, beautiful and compelling”. His review (published last March) inThe Agecontinues: “It has a subtle moral clarity that stands out even in a career that has relentlessly searched for the gold hidden in human rubble.

“The book is wise in areas, such as anger and masculinity, where most of us just have theories. In the anger of Jaxie, Winton has heard the confusion and need that lie behind the struggle for an authentic, tender and honest masculinity that is one of our major cultural challenges.”